Tex-Mex Enchilada Casserole
This Tex-Mex enchilada casserole is truly the best when it comes to homemade Mexican meals. It is mild in spiciness with tremendous flavor.
Before we even get started, let me just say that I know many of you (don’t look away, I’m talking to YOU!) are going to dismiss this recipe because of the ingredient list.
And while I admit, it’s on the long side, I have to implore you to dig deep within your cooking soul and trust me when I say that it looks worse than it really is. Promise.
With absolutely no exaggeration in my words, this Mexican-inspired meal is hands down the best Mexican/Tex-Mex style recipe I have ever posted. I’m not kidding.
I make a decent amount of Mexican food but am usually left a bit underwhelmed and 90% of the recipes never get posted because I really, really only want to put the best of the best out here for you to try.
This enchilada casserole is truly the best of the best.
It is mild in spiciness (you could definitely heat it up more if you like) but has tremendous flavor from the classic cumin/chili powder/coriander trio and the myriad of peppers, onion and garlic. Quickly browning the corn tortillas before assembling is brilliant because while they soften a bit during baking, they keep a tasty amount of tenderness and bite which keeps the casserole from becoming a soggy, mushy mess.
And I don’t know about you but I firmly believe that soggy, mushy casseroles do not belong on the planet.
I have my share of food cravings; Mexican-inspired dishes are rarely, rarely among them. Until now. I literally have wanted to make this casserole every day since we first had it
. The leftovers are fantastical and I already have the real deal on our menu plan for next week because it is just that good. I mean, just look at it.
Doesn’t it scream “eat me up” with all that cheesy, saucy, black bean goodness? In the words of others far more eloquent than I: Holy Yum.
What To Serve With This:
Tortilla chips (or for something more fancy these Curried Nachos with Mango Salsa)
Fresh, seasonal fruit
Steamed veggie or something like this Skillet Squash Medley
One Year Ago: Brown Sugar Crackle Cookies
Two Years Ago: Healthy Chicken Nuggets {Baked}
Three Years Ago: Lemon Berry Trifle
Tex-Mex Enchilada Casserole
Ingredients
- 14 corn tortillas cut into thirds
- 1 ½ pounds ground beef or lean ground turkey
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 medium red or green bell pepper, cored, seeded and diced
- 1 large poblano chile, diced
- 1 cup frozen corn kernels
- 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons chili powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 2 ½ cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- 2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
- 2 cups Monterey jack cheese, shredded
- Chopped cilantro for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat a 9X13-inch baking dish with nonstick spray and set aside.
- Arrange the cut tortillas in a single layer on two large, rimmed baking sheets. Bake the tortillas until slightly crisp, about 15 minutes.
- In a large 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat, cook the ground beef or turkey with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper breaking the meat up into bite-sized pieces. Cook until the meat is no longer pink, 5-7 minutes. Scrape the meat onto a plate and wipe the skillet clean (you may need to drain off excess grease from the meat depending on the fat content).
- In the same skillet over medium heat, add the butter and olive oil and stir in the onion, bell pepper, poblano, corn and garlic. Cook until the veggies are softened, 3-4 minutes. Stir the flour, chile powder, cumin and coriander into the vegetable mixture. Cook, stirring constantly, for 1-2 minutes. Gradually whisk in the chicken broth, whisking constantly. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook until thick, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Stir in the beans, lime juice and season with salt and pepper.
- Line the bottom of the greased baking pan with 1/3 of the baked tortillas. Layer with 1/3 of the meat and then 1/3 of the veggie/sauce mixture and then sprinkle with 1/3 of the cheeses. Repeat that process again twice more ending with the cheeses.
- Bake the casserole until hot and bubbly, about 30-35 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit for 10 minutes or so before serving. Garnish with chopped cilantro.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: adapted from Cuisine at Home October 2012 (cut out significant amount of butter/oil, changed the meat mixture and a few other spices and added cilantro)
Made this for the first time last night with great results! Everyone in the family really enjoyed it. Thanks Mel!!
I made this tonight with chicken and it was okay. I love pre-baking the tortillas to make them crispy but I prefer more sauce. Maybe next time I’ll double the sauce.
The whole family loved it! Took about 45 mins to get in the oven. So not a really quick weeknight meal but to me definitely doable! Wouldn’t change a thing!
Thanks for bringing another winner to the table. The whole family loved it so it will definitely be making an appearance at our house again. I halved it for us and it worked great. Next time I will be making a whole batch and freezing half. Thanks Mel!!!!!!!!
Just an FYI… Poblano peppers are also called Pasilla peppers (that’s how’s they’re labeled at my store). May want to put that in the recipe for all who look for poblano and can’t find them.
I made it last night and everyone went for seconds. Quite time consuming prep though. Not a weeknight meal for sure.
Just made this for dinner tonight – yum!! I used white corn tortillas and substituted my fav gluten free flour blend for the regular flour to make this gluten free. My husband and I loved it and are looking forward to the leftovers. Thanks for the great recipe Mel!
Another name for Poblano pepper is Pasilla pepper. That is how both of my grocery stores had them.(Albertsons and Smith’s) I am not a fan of corn tortillas so I don’t buy them but after reading the comments I will try them. I noticed at the store that there are white and yellow-I’m assuming it doesn’t matter which to use but what did you happen to use?
Karen – I used yellow corn tortillas.
Rita – here’s a link to other meals I’ve frozen: http://www.melskitchencafe.com/category/freezable
Yup, another winner! I’m planning on freezing half since I’m having surgery later this week. Any suggestions for other make-ahead and freeze type meals. I’d love to have a bunch ready for when I’m not up to cooking.
Made this last night and my family loved it! We are gluten free so we substituted with the flour blend I use. It has rice flour, potato starch and tapioca starch. It thickened beautifully. Oh, and I had made great similar recipes in the past, but the part that I LOVED about this one was the toasted tortillas. Made such a difference. Thanks so much for the wonderful recipes!
This looks delicious! I love poblano peppers but have a really hard time finding them. I guess I’ll start searching again 🙂
Started off the Cinco de Mayo weekend with this dish, absolutely fantastic! Thanks for sharing, it’s a keeper!!!
My boyfriend made this for me after I bought all of the ingredients, but I was too busy doing homework to cook. It was so amazing! We will be making it again for sure.
He added some re-fried beans because we didn’t have the full amount of ground beef we needed. Also, we couldn’t find poblanos so we used a jalapeno and half an Anaheim pepper. And, we also added tomatoes!
Delicious!
Thank you Mel for another great recipe! My family loved it.
Loved it! My husband isn’t a huge veggie eater but this has worked for him. 🙂 We’ll be making it again.
Hi! I made this tonight…I am wondering if there might be a typo in the recipe. Mine turned out incredibly spicy. Did you mean 2 teaspoons (vs tablespoons) Chile powder, or maybe Chili powder (vs. Chile powder?) Other than being super spicy, the casserole is great! Will definitely try it again with less spice
Jill – it isn’t a typo but you might want to check to see what kind of chile powder you are using. That might be the issue. What kind did you use? I was using “chile” and “chili” interchangeably since my chile powder is labeled just that – “chile” but it isn’t spicy. Just a deep kind of smoky flavor with a hint of heat.
Trying this tonight! Went to get the pepper at the store and they didn’t have it. Luckily for me I just googled it at the store on my phone and found that they are usually mislabeled at the stores as pasillas. Lucky for me they had those! So pasillas that are fresh are really poblanos. Real pasillas are dried poblanos. Can’t wait to try it. Tempted to do the chicken version someone else did since I have chicken already in the fridge.
This was an simple, quick and delicious dinner! I omitted the meat and just doubled the amount of beans. I also didn’t have a poblano pepper on hand so I didn’t add that either…but it still turned out great! Thanks again!
What size corn tortillas are we talking about?
Marie – about 6-inches in diameter.
Yum! Going to try this soon! For those who think flour would bea better choice of tortilla, I would warn that they tend to get soggier faster in these types of dishes. But, I’m a corn tortilla girl all the way. 🙂 love your blog!
I made this last night as well – I used shredded chicken and it was great! We all loved it and the leftovers were great for lunch today!!
Hi Mel-
Is the flour just used to thicken the sauce? Would corn starch work do you think? I want to make a gluten free version. I can’t wait to try this it sounds so yummy. Thanks!
Hi Susan – yes, the flour is used to thicken the sauce so you could probably adapt using cornstarch (mixing the cornstarch with liquid before adding it to the sauce) to make it gluten free.
After seeing the picture I had no choice, had to make it that night. It was every bit as good as I thought it would be too. Now on to those Eskimo Bars, those look dangerous!
This was unbelievably delicious. I made it with your Divine One-Minute Salsa and my husband gave both a score of 10/10!
Ok, can I just say that I have the best visitors/readers/friends/whatever-you-want-to-call-yourselves in the world? The fact that so many of you have made this AND REPORTED BACK already is astounding to me. Even my husband couldn’t believe that the same night I posted this, there were reviews of the recipe in the comments section. Thank you for being awesome (and for making the recipes!). Love your guts. Tons.
I made this for dinner last night and it was wonderful! Thank you for the recipe. My family loved it.
Ooh, this looks incredible!! I can’t get poblano peppers in the country im currently living in but I am going to make this sometime this week. Thank you so much for posting!
I made this for dinner tonight & it was a hit, just the hubby & I but we both really liked it. I couldn’t find a pablono so use an anheim as that was all my store had. I think a couple of seeded jalapenos would work in a pinch too. Couldn’t find any Monterey Jack cheese except for a pack of shredded with jalapenos which worked out well I think. I live in a tiny town in the middle of Montana, we are lucky to have a store! I pinned this & we will have it often, I agree the list is long but not a difficult recipe at all. Thanks!
If you omit the meat would you replace it with more beans to take the place of the meat or just leave it out without replacing it with anything?
Jen – I’d probably just leave it out.
We just tried this dinner and it was DELICIOUS! My son left for wrestling practice before it was done and I promised to save him a large helping as he was commenting on how delicious it was smelling! My grocery store didn’t have the poblano pepper so I just added an orange pepper. Anxious to try it again with the poblano pepper! Thanks for all the wonderful, home-made recipes!
I made this for dinner tonight (was writing my shopping list when you posted this morning). I am normally not a fan of corn tortillas, either, but you’re right, they really do make this dish. I like that it didn’t just taste like a taco seasoning packet, too. The length of the ingredient list wasn’t intimidating, but the prep time took me forever. I think next time I may try the sauce/veggies in the crock pot with raw chicken breast (reducing the broth). Then I can shred the chicken while the tortillas bake, so it’s less prep when I get home from work.
Ok, so I have it in the oven! I will update my blog with pics of how it turned out. I can tell you now that it smells amazing. We made a few changes, tho:
1) we omitted the cumin… a mexi dish without cumin? i know! But I didn’t realize til it was too late that I was out!
2) we added a smidge more flour to thicken the mixture (about 1/3c instead of 1/4)
3) we added more cheese! why? because we LOVE cheese, haha.
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe Mel! We are pairing it with some taco rice for a carbalicious mexi meal.
This came as a SHOCKER… my 7 year old kids gobbled this up! No such a surprise for my son as it was my daughter. She thought the bean looked like a plumped raisin – that being the only reason she tried it and a testament to how much she detests all Mexican food. Kids had big seconds, renamed the recipe, and requested leftovers for tomorrow’s dinner!! What a winner!
Looks delicious!! Can’t wait to give it a try. I also love your new look! Very clean and professional. The colors are great!
I make a recipe that’s very similar to this and I have tried freezing it–let me tell you, yuck. The corn tortillas get mushy and it just ruins the texture. Flour tortillas might make a difference–I haven’t tried it yet. This looks great! Can’t wait to make it!
I can’t believe it. A recipe without cream cheese in it!. Since I have been following you, my kids have noticed that we now have more cream cheese in the house than ketchup! That’s saying something because my in-laws think ketchup can cure anything. Thanks for all the good things to try!
This looks so good!!! I agree that it will probably freeze well – I have frozen dishes containing both corn and flour tortilla enchiladas just fine.
Another recipe I want to try to make right away! I’m putting Poblano pepper on the gorcery list. 🙂
Hmmm. I just added your Mexican lasagna to my menu for next week and then you posted this!! Which of those two do you prefer?
Rebecca – I probably prefer this casserole right at the moment because I’ve had it more recently but the Mexican lasagna is a winner, too.
I am making this for dinner tonight! I’ll let you know what the hubs thinks 🙂
How did you cut the tortillas into thirds? Pie shapes or long strips?
Tamera – I cut them into strips.
so glad I found this recipe today! I am making it tonight, but plan to use some cooked chicken that I have leftover, as well as the flour tortillas. Will come back tomorrow and let you know how it turned out!
We love Mexican food in our house! I’m sure this would be a winner!
Oh, definitely going on our next menu plan.
This looks and sounds delicious. Do you think this would freeze well? I’m thinking that the tortillas and the sauce would not freeze well, but would be able to freeze half of the meat/vegetable mixture and assemble the second half of the casserole after thawing. One 9X13 pan is too much for two old empty-nesters at one time.
Hi Connie – I mentioned in the note above the recipe that I haven’t tried freezing it so I can’t guarantee results but it’s probably worth a try. To minimize work, I’d just go ahead and freeze the assembled casserole (before baking), then just thaw and bake (or even bake from frozen adding extra time). The tortillas in the frozen casserole may get a bit softer.
This looks absolutely amazing!! Love the corn and black beans peeking out around all that cheese….perfect!!
I am most eager to try this! However, some members of my family don’t care for corn tortillas. Could I substitute flour tortillas? Thanks so much.
dang. my pin it button isn’t working. Can not wait to try this!!!!
I may try this with cooked chicken. I love one dish meals and this recipe sounds like a winner!
I crave Mexican all the time, so with your glowing recommendation I’ll definitely give this a try!
Yum! What about using flour instead of corn tortillas???
Jocelyn and Jen – I haven’t tried it with flour but go ahead and experiment. I’m not an overly huge fan of corn tortillas but I have to admit, they are spectacular in this dish.
I completely agree with you, Mel.
Hi Mel- This casserole looks fantastic. When should we add the cooked meat to the casserole? I don’t see that step listed in the recipe. Thank you so much.
Thanks for the heads up, hlalle! Just edited the recipe.